Stepping onto my personal soapbox

When I first heard about blogging, my question was "who would want to read somebody's random ramblings?" I still think that's a legitimate question. But for years, now, I have had issues on my mind that I thought no one was paying attention to, so this is my chance to speak out!

What drove me to this at last? Don freaking Imus. I think I would have been outraged if this was a stand-alone episode. But if you stack this up next to Mel Gibson, Michael Richards, and yes, even Isiah Washington, it looks to me as though we have people behaving badly with little or no consequence. I was driven to write to the chairman and CEO of CBS Radio, which I'll share with you here.

April 9, 2007



Mr. Daniel Mason
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
CBS Radio
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

Dear Mr. Mason:

I know how much demographics matter, so let me give you mine before I get to the subject of my letter:

African American Female
54 years of age
Undergraduate Degree: Stanford University
Graduate Degrees: MS Journalism Columbia University, JD Columbia University
Current Employment: Executive Director of Development, Atlanta GA
Previous relevant employment: Editor, KCBS Radio, San Francisco CA

Obviously, I speak from some experience. And I write to you today to express my extreme dismay at the way CBS Radio has opted NOT to handle the Don Imus debacle. I was working at KCBS Radio when Jimmy the Greek was fired from his post as commentator for NFL TODAY, for making the now infamous statement, “During the slave period, the slave owner would breed his big black with his big woman so that he would have a big black kid—that's where it all started.” The dismissal was swift, and unapologetic.

Frankly, I see no difference between that shameful gaffe and Don Imus’s reference to the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” He can apologize all he wants. However, the statement is, in fact, racist on its face, and by refusing to take a no-tolerance position, CBS Radio is complicit in promoting racist, and therefore, hate speech.

I have, until today, been very proud of my association with CBS Radio. However, I find it necessary to now boycott the CBS Radio network. While my one radio dial may make no difference to you, I also plan to boycott the companies that advertise on your network, and I will encourage everyone in my personal network to do the same.

You should be embarrassed by this blatant prioritization of cash over a standard of human decency. However, in my experience I find those who most should be embarrassed, never are. Shame on CBS Radio, and shame on you.

Sincerely,


I copied this to MSNBC's chairman and CEO, along with chairmen and CEOs of Capital One, Shell Oil US and Orbitz, all of whom advertise on Imus in the Morning. In doing the research to find these people (I love the Internet), I discovered that Capital One's CEO is 1972 Stanford grad, and one of the company values is "Doing the right thing." I also discovered that the recently retired chair of the NAACP sits on the CBS Network board. He got a copy, too.

In the midst of apologizing Imus has also been justifying. He says he was trying to be funny. I have an amazing sense of humor (if I do say so myself, and I do), but there is not one thing funny about referring to a group of hard-working, accomplished, college-educated young women as nappy-headed hos. He says he didn't think that phrase up all by himself; black men refer to black women as hos and bitches and any number of other degrading terms. So of course, it must be OK for him to do it as well. NOT. But see, here's the thing...he says he's a good man and not a racist, and yet, people who use this kind of speech almost always believe this kind of speech. How else does it work its way into our personal lexicon?

And excuse me...a TWO-WEEK suspension? In the words of Olivia Soprano, "...oh, poor you..." I got grounded for three weeks in high school for staying out too late.

If we don't stand up, like Howard Beale in the movie, NETWORK, and shout "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore," this will never stop.

CBS needs to fire his ass.